The Young Turks show and The Spectator on the London attacks: the former ignores religion, the latter indicts it

June 10, 2017 • 1:00 pm

The Young Turks news show has become increasingly regressive as time goes on. Here’s a 13-minute video with hosts John Iadarola, Ana Kasparian, and Michael Shure discussing the recent terrorist attacks on London.

Two words are completely missing from the long discussion: “Muslim” and “Islam.” I don’t think that omission is accidental.

The tone was set in the opening statement by Iadorolo: “In terms of exactly who they are, I don’t care about that–they’re assholes who got what they deserved for an absolutely terrible attack, especially considering that the Manchester attack just happened; but even that wasn’t the first attack in the UK. That’s very rough.”  Well, some of us care who they are! The U.S. and British governments, for one thing.

And so it goes on, with Shure blaming George W. Bush and Tony Blair (via the Iraq War) for the terrorost attacks and the subsequent blame the fell on “that community” (a.k.a. Muslims). At 4:29, Kasparian refuses to name the terrorists, even though their names had been released by the police. Why? Could it because they had names that sounded like Muslims? At 8:39, Kasparian mentions “this group of people” (she means Muslims), and blames “Western governments [who are] killing innocent civilians in Middle Eastern countries.” She goes on to say that the attacks are due to those people who get angered at drone strikes and enact retribution, saying that we’re “missing the mark because we let our emotions get in the way.” In other words, the terrorism is the fault of the West, and it’s understandable that an angry Muslim would want to blow up a bunch of kids in Manchester or diners in London.

The whole discussion judiciously avoids not only the topic of religion but even the name of the religion. It’s Islamist apologetics and West-blaming of the worst stripe. I was no fan of the Iraq war, but I don’t think that it somehow makes the retaliatory killing of other innocent civilians justified. Kasparian’s conclusion, given later on, is that the solution to Islamist terrorism is for the West to stop bombing other countries. Perhaps that will help, but we already know the problems with that “solution” (see also here). It’s not going to stop Muslims from attacking other Muslims, or Islamists from attacking in the West.

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In contrast, Tom Holland, identified by the Spectator as “a historian of early Islam, [and] a dinosaur enthusiast and a translator of Herodotus’s Histories,” has no problem indicting religion as a major cause of these attacks, and something essential to recognize if we want to solve the problem. His new Spectator article, “After five centuries, religious war has returned to Britain,” is a passionate defense of his view that Britain is now in a faith-against-faith (or faith-against apostasy) battle. Now you won’t be able to read his piece as it’s behind a paywall, but judicious inquiry might yield you a copy.  Here are two excerpts:

But then, last Saturday night, religiously motivated killing returned to London Bridge. Three men, swerving to murder as many pedestrians as they could, drove a rented van across the very spot where severed heads had been fixed to the bridge’s southern gatepost. They crashed opposite Tooley Street. Then, brandishing long knives, they plunged into the warren of streets and passageways around Southwark Cathedral where, back in the reign of Mary, six high-ranking clergymen had been tried and convicted of heresy. For eight terrible minutes, terrorists — no less convinced than Tudor inquisitors had been that they were the agents of a stern and implacable god — visited slaughter upon Borough Market. Just four days later, another group of Islamists, equally fanatical and set on martyrdom attacked the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran, killing at least 12 people and injuring many more.

The London Bridge attackers wanted us to be in no doubt about their motivation. ‘This is for Allah,’ they shouted, as they slashed and stabbed their victims. When they could, they slit people’s throats — just as Isis executioners in Syria, claiming obedience to a command in the Quran ‘to strike off the heads of unbelievers’, had slit the throats of western hostages. Shot by police marksmen, the three men were hailed by supporters of Isis as ‘martyrs’.

Sometimes it can be hard to recognise ghosts for what they are. Reactions to the atrocities committed on Saturday — as to the atrocities committed only a few short weeks previously in Manchester and on Westminster Bridge — have mingled despair with perplexity. We just don’t understand violent religion.

And this:

And yet, for all that, it is clear that the legacy of Islamic supremacism, deriving as it does from both the Quran and sayings of Mohammed, still has a potent and seductive appeal. Indeed, there is a sense in which it may be precisely the integration into Islam of the Western notion of human rights that is helping to fuel its recrudescence. After all, if — as Muslims believe — their religion is the last and ultimate of God’s revelations, then any dimunition of its purity, any dilution of its traditions, can all too easily be portrayed as a lethal threat to the entire future of humanity. Isis, who have pointedly reintroduced both the jizya and slavery, are merely the most extreme of those factions within Islam who insist that Muslims, far from compromising with the values of the West, should instead seek to destroy them utterly.

We are witnessing a civil war within Islam and the three men who brought carnage to Borough Market last Saturday did not see themselves as murderers, but rather as warriors. They imagined that they had been divinely summoned — just as Mohammed had been — to the overthrow of kufr: unbelief.

No laws, no increase in police numbers, no boost to the powers of the security services can adequately patrol such ideas. Only by directly confronting these beliefs do we have even the faintest prospect of diminishing their potency. To do that, though, will first require acknowledging what Isis and their cohorts in the West actually embody: a strain of Islam that has its roots deep in the past, and which, as our most careful analyst of Isis, Shiraz Maher, has put it, ‘believes in progression through regression’. To dismiss it, as Theresa May did, as ‘a perversion of Islam’ is not merely to close our eyes to the nature of the threat that it presents to Britain’s future as a free society; it actively risks making it worse.

So as we begin the inevitable discussion about what to do next, the first step ought to be a fairly basic one: recognise the problem.

And that’s what people like The Young Turks adamantly fail to do.

Graduation!

June 10, 2017 • 12:00 pm

Today was graduation at the University of Chicago, or rather, as someone pointed out, “convocation.”  Here are the students lining up to march into the venue. Fortunately, the weather was lovely, though a bit hot; they hold graduation outdoors whether it’s sunny or rainy (the stage is covered, and they provide ponchos to everyone if it rains):

The line extended across 57th Street and in front of Regenstein Library:

And a panorama, which still shows only part of the lineup:

The ceremony (it was hot and the seats in the sun were largely empty):

And the happy graduates. The first shot shows my colleague Manyuan Long (left, in pink shirt) embracing his son, who just graduated.

Congrats to all graduates; I know what a happy time this is—the successful completion of four years of hard work (more for many grad students)!

CNN cancels Reza Aslan’s t.v. documentary, “Believer”, but for bad reasons

June 10, 2017 • 10:30 am

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Reza Aslan. I dislike his apologetics for and whitewashing of Islam, his osculation of all faiths and false claim that, at bottom, they’re all the same, and his flaunting of his  bogus credentials that he’s a “religious scholar.” His CNN show about religion, “Believer,” which I’ve written about before (here, here, and here), hasn’t been favorably reviewed (see the recent mixed review in the New Yorker as well as the last link), and the bits I’ve seen have been dire (I haven’t watched the whole series).

“Believer” was going to go into a second season after the first six episodes, but CNN announced a few days ago that the show would be canceled. My Schadenfreude, however, has been considerably tempered by the reasons for the cancellation: not because the show was bad—though I gather it was, and the parts I saw were abysmal—but because Aslan issued a series of nasty tw**ts about Trump. As CNN itself reported:

The network said Friday that it has “decided to not move forward with production” on Aslan’s “Believer” series.

Season one of “Believer” premiered in March. Season two was announced at an event for advertisers in mid-May. Aslan’s production company had already started working on the new episodes.

But the network decided to break off the production relationship after Aslan called President Trump a piece of excrement, using an expletive, last Saturday.

. . . Aslan has been a virulent critic of Trump for some time, but this particular tweet crossed a line in the minds of some media critics. Prominent conservatives weighed in and said they wanted Aslan to be fired.

Aslan posted the tweet in reaction to Trump’s promotion of a “travel ban” in the immediate aftermath of a terror attack in London.

“I lost my cool and responded to him in a derogatory fashion. That’s not like me,” Aslan said in a statement the next day. “I should have used better language to express my shock and frustration at the president’s lack of decorum and sympathy for the victims of London. I apologize for my choice of words.”

CNN responded in a statement: “We are pleased that he has apologized for his tweets. That kind of discourse is never appropriate.”

The network’s statement also pointed out that Aslan is not a CNN employee. Unwinding the contractual relationship with Aslan’s production company apparently took several days.

CNN’s Friday statement about the cancellation of “Believer” said, “We wish Reza and his production team all the best.”

Here are the tweets at issue. I believe at least some of them have been deleted, but I can’t check because Aslan has blocked me from seeing his Twitter feed. These I got from Google image:

 

Now I wouldn’t have issued those tweets were I doing a show for CNN, even though I agree with Aslan’s sentiments, but he has to maintain a certain level of decorum. Even if he wanted to criticize Trump publicly, I wouldn’t have used “piece of shit,” nor will I use it on my own tweets now. Here’s his apology:

And here’s his statement that appeared his Facebook page:

That’s reasonable, but the part about “I need to honor my voice” rankles a bit since “honoring his voice” means using scatological language. I can’t imagine a public figure such as Neil deGrasse Tyson issuing tweets like that.

However, I’m not sure why someone who’s doing a CNN show has to mute their political opinions. I suppose the threats from conservatives were distressing to the network, and I guess there are journalistic considerations at issue that I don’t fully understand. Still, this amounts to a kind of censorship. Why couldn’t CNN have asked Aslan to apologize, and then let him continue the show? It may be the case that because the show didn’t get good reviews, their reason for canceling it could have been twofold.

But CNN’s statement prevents me from celebrating the cancellation of a dreadful show—not if it was done for political reasons. I thus share the sentiments of Ali Rizvi expressed below:

And I’m sure that Aslan, as greedy for fame as he is, will find plenty of other venues where he can express his misguided views.

h/t: Barry

Caturday felids: World’s first air-to-land radio message: “Roy, come and get this goddamned cat!”; heroic cat saves baby by snuggling; dog carries cat home

June 10, 2017 • 9:00 am

In October, 2010 I posted the story of Kiddo the cat, a felid who nearly beat Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic. (Kiddo was on an airship, which ultimately had to ditch, but all hands and paws were rescued by the accompanying boat. Go look at that short post before you get to this update, which I hadn’t known when I wrote the earlier piece. It’s recounted by Aviation Humor (my emphasis):

In 1910 airman Walter Wellman and five companions attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the airship America. He was also accompanied by his cat Kiddo. Unfortunately once they were underway Kiddo decided he was not so fond of flying and started causing trouble by meowing, crying and running around ‘like a squirrel in a cage.’ The airship America was the first aircraft to be carry radio equipment and the first engineer, Melvin Vaniman, was so annoyed by the antics of Kiddo that he was moved to make the first in-flight radio transmission to a secretary back on land.

The historic first message read:, “Roy, come and get this goddam cat!”

A plan was formed to lower the cat in a canvas bag to motorboat beneath the airship. An attempt was made, but failed because the seas were too rough for the boat to catch the bag, so it was pulled back up again and Kiddo was forced to continue the journey. Luckily Kiddo became more comfortable and settled down to become an excellent flying companion. Navigator Murray Simon wrote that he was ‘more useful than any barometer.’ And that ‘You must never cross the Atlantic in an airship without a cat.’ He slept comfortably in a lifeboat and seemed to only become agitated when he sensed there was weather trouble ahead.

kiddo-vaniman
Kiddo and Melvin Vaniman

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A Russian cat rescued a baby! Here’s the skinny (original story from Pravda):

A baby found abandoned in a box on a cold winter day in Russia is alive and well today – all thanks to one cat’s life-saving cuddles.

As Russian news outlet Pravda reports, the two-month-old baby boy was discovered near the dumpsters of an apartment complex in the city of Obinsk, after resident Nadezhda Makhovikova heard the desperate meowing of the building’s communal cat, Murka.

When Makhovikova arrived to investigate, she found the long-haired tabby cat cuddled alongside the helpless infant, sheltering him from the sub-freezing temperatures like she would her own kitten.

“One side [of the baby] was already hot – [the] cat warmed [him] in the few hours he spent in her box,” Makhovikova says, as translated by Google.

Murka remained close by, reportedly licking the baby until paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital. Fortunately, the child is said to be “completely healthy,” no doubt because of Murka’s help.

Here’s a video of the heroic cat, which was undoubtedly more efficacious because it was very FURRY:

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And finally, though I may have published this before, here’s a d*g trained to carry a cat home, which is the proper function of a d*g. I’m not sure what language is being spoken here, but readers will sort that out:

h/t: jsp, Mark

Readers’ wildlife photos

June 10, 2017 • 8:00 am

We continue the saga of reader Diane G.’s orphaned raccoons (see here and here for Parts I and II). Her notes are indented:

Coonlets in Sunshine

I’m really not trying to spam WEIT with these young’uns–honest! But Thursday I finally got some daylight pics, so thought I’d send those along before I quit.  These were taken less than five minutes after I’d put the bird feeders back out.  As you can see, they’re getting quite brazen!  They took an initial run to the top of the pole (well, all but the one–Louis II?), but soon remembered I posed little threat and scurried back down to where I’d just spread some peanuts for the ground birds.
I also wanted to answer some of the questions/concerns raised in Thursday’s post which I didn’t have time to get to then.
I love what it says about people that we care so much about little critters like these. Sadly, orphan raccoons are not all that rare; just think about the adult roadkill you see if you live in raccoon country.  One of the most heartbreaking sights I’ve seen was when I was driving home from an airport north of here, in the middle of the night, and came across a fresh adult roadkill with two very young babies milling around it, looking totally lost and as if they were desperately trying to wake Mom up…There was little I could do at that hour in those circumstances, and by the time I returned, the babies were gone.
This time of year the countryside is full of clumsy, ingenuous–and invariably adorable–offspring. All around our field various species of birds are feeding their fledglings–Field Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Orioles, Cardinals, Chickadees, Crows, Robins, and more;  it’s also the season of the tiny, spotted fawns. Rehabilitators tend to be inundated now.  The last time I was concerned about orphan raccoons, I was told that if they were on their own and seemed to be foraging successfully, the best thing to do is just let them be. Bringing them in would only further acclimate them to humans, which is decidedly not in their ultimate best interest. (Especially in farm country, where they’re frequently regarded as varmints.)
This is also the 6th day I’ve seen them, an encouraging fact in itself, especially since there’s been no attrition.  Actually, probably the best thing I could do would be to turn the hose on them; try to awaken what should be a natural fear of humans and encourage them to stick to the fencerows and forests where the foraging is more natural. Of course I’m not going to do that. But neither do I want to be the one who acclimates them to humans so much that they grow up (we hope they grow up!) to be regarded as pests and face a very real threat to their existence from our species. I think I’ll start by withholding the ground peanuts (there’s still a tube feeder of peanuts on a squirrel-baffled pole the kits can’t access), keep bringing the feeders in at night, and hope for the best. (I may ultimately have to quit putting the feeders out altogether for a while–but then I’ll worry about all my bird families!)
Aside from humans (and not just humans-with-guns, but also humans-with-cars), probably their next worst enemies are coyotes. Fortunately the coyotes haven’t put in much of a presence lately. There’s no predicting how long that will last, but human-acclimated coon kits would be in greater danger from them than properly wild kits.
I suspect some of you will disagree with my reasoning here, and I would be glad to consider your input as well. Thanks very much for reading.

Saturday: Hili dialogue

June 10, 2017 • 6:30 am

It’s now (in the US) Saturday, June 10, 2017: graduation day at The University of Chicago. Today the campus will be overrun with maroon-robed students and their proud parents, though I fear for the peace of my ducklings! Here’s the venue, waiting for the activities to begin (employees are wiping down the seats). The stage for dignaries, speakers, and College officials is at the far end (the bell tower of Rockefeller Chapel looms in the distance), and the quad is full of seats.

I don’t yet know who is getting honorary degrees; the University has a tradition (unique as far as I know) that only recognized scholars get those degrees, so there will be no appearances or graduation speeches by humorists, authors, politicians, cartoonists or the like. The convocation address, likewise, is always given by a member of our faculty; this year it’s Ka Yee C. Lee, professor of chemistry.

The gate in the biology area (“Hull Court”) through which the seniors will march after they’ve graduated (duck pond to the right after you pass through the gate:

It’s also National Iced Tea Day, appropriate since the temperatures today and tomorrow will be in the 90s (or mid 30s Celsius). It’s Army Day in Jordan and Navy Day in Italy.

It was not a big day in history, On June 10, 1935, Dr. Robert Smith, an alcoholic surgeon, took his last drink and, with his friend Bill Wilson, founded Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, Ohio. On this day in 1942, the Czech village of  Lidice was razed, and its inhabitants killed (men) or sent to the camps (women and children; nearly all died) in reprisal for the assassination of  Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich. Finally, on June 10, 1944, Joe Nuxhall took the mound to pitch part of an inning for the Cincinnati Reds, becoming, at age 15, the youngest player to ever take part in a major-leage baseball game. There was a shortage of players during the war, and Nuxhall, called in during the ninth inning to help with a 13-0 losing score against the St. Louis Cardinals, promptly yielded five more runs and was pulled from the game. He later came back to the major leagues in 1952 and pitched until 1967, when he retired and became a broadcaster.

Notables born on this day incude Hattie McDaniel (1895), Saul Bellow (1915), Judy Garland (1922), Maurice Sendak (1928), biologist E. O. Wilson (1929; he’s 88 today), and Elizabeth Hurley (1965). Those who died on this day include Antoni Gaudi (1926; hit by a trolley), Marcus Garvey (1940), Jack Johnson (1946), Spencer Tracy (1967), Ray Charles (2004) and Gordie Howe (last year).

Charles is surely most famous for singing “Georgia On My Mind,” a very great song, but it’s become a bit of a cliche, and I prefer his version of the Eddy Arnold song “You Don’t Know Me,” performed here in a lovely duet with Diana Krall:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili looks very cute as she espouses Cat Theology:

Hili: The argument from authority says that I shouldn’t go any further.
A: Whose authority?
Hili: Mine.
In Polish:
Hili: Argument autorytetu mówi, że nie powinnam iść dalej.
Ja: Czyjego autorytetu?
Hili: Mojego.

 

Grania found a cat/bogroll tw**t with a video; note that the paper is in the MacPherson position: