Current Events Watch

A self-described “Asian Supremacist” has caused a backlash over a column he wrote called “Why I Hate Blacks.”

Asian-American leaders and readers of the column are calling on the newspaper to cut ties with Kenneth Eng, the author of the article.

From CNN:
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The column was among several written by Kenneth Eng, who has described himself as an “Asian Supremacist.” Previous columns have been titled “Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us” and “Why I Hate Asians.”
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Hard to believe a man of this stature would decide to throw away his journalistic integrity by publishing an article that was hurtful to…well, the next race of people.

I honestly don’t understand why the newspaper would keep him after those articles. Did they think he would just calm down after “Why I Hate Asians?”

And then there’s the issue of free speech. What are the limitations? Can something that is supposed to be free even have limitations? Well, no it can’t.

But then again, the government is not stepping in to ban this article. The man who wrote it is not going to receive punishment from the government. Instead, the backlash is coming from readers, and the newspaper would naturally cater to its loyal readers. It’s really more of a matter of economics than censorship.

No matter how detestable it is, this man has a legal right to speak his mind. The readers who are taking action against this man and the column he wrote are also exercising that same right.

———-EDIT———-
Here’s the article, “Why I Hate Asians.” If I felt it was truly offensive I wouldn’t put a link up for it, but any reasonable person who reads this is bound to laugh at the stupidity of it.
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Kenneth Eng, newspaper, column, Asian-American

Completely unrelated yet very funny:

Kindergartner Being Groomed For Line-Leader Position

BELLE MEADE, TN—Kindergarten teacher and mentor Mrs. Allen believes 6-year-old Gregory Hutter "has what it takes" for the coveted post.

A Michigan Pastor has decided to jazz up his message by doing what every company does when they are trying to sell a product. Add sex. Here’s the full story.

To summarize, the pastor is beginning a series titled, “The Greatest Sex You’ll Ever Have.” People are getting upset and accusing the church of bad taste. They are particularly upset over the intro video on the church’s website.

Don’t worry, you can look. It’s not porn or anything. Actually it’s not a big deal at all. In my opinion the church isn’t as out of line as people are accusing it of being. Sex is everywhere. Instead of being the one institution that won’t talk about it, the church needs to embrace it and use it as an opportunity to get their message out.

This story tickles me because I imagine what would happen if this church kept ‘taking it to the next level’ and eventually became so out of touch with reality that they began showing porn movies and afterwards attempting to forge a biblical message out of it. That would certainly get a lot of people hot and bothered.

Religion, epic church, sex, pastor

And this is what we would call an overreaction. Two high school students (a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old) caused a 60-year-old teacher to be hospitalized after attacking him because he confiscated one of their iPods.

That’s really all there is to it. The only reason I provide the link is for proof. This is one of those things that requires proof.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s understandable that a kid might completely overreact and do something stupid like this if a teacher took something that was his. I’m not saying it’s justified at all, but it wouldn’t be an unbelievable story. But the fact that another kid saw what was happening and decided to step into it and help the boy injure the teacher is insane.

Seriously, what were they thinking? “Well, maybe once we knock the old fart down to the ground we can pry the thing out of his hands.” They were in a school. It’s not like there weren’t other people around. Did they really think they could get away with it?

The kids will be expelled. It’s kind of a “kill two birds with one stone” kind of thing in this case. It’s punishment, but it also weeds out two extremely stupid kids from their school; a move that could do nothing but improve test scores.

iPod, teenage violence, stupid, high school, teacher

I’d like to direct you to my fellow news blogger’s site, Get Incensed, for a post she wrote having to do with the imprisonment of an Egyptian blogger for speaking out against the government and the government’s religion, Islam. His sentence is a ridiculous four years.

The type of restrictions that Egyptian bloggers face are similar to the ones found in China, where a blogger must register their identity with the government. Failure to do this results in a one million yuan fine.

I’ll be the first one to criticize this country when I feel that it’s done something wrong, but I’ll also stick up for it in the ways that it is superior to other countries. In the realm of freedom of speech we still seem to be on top. For now at least.

blog, censorship, Egypt, China, freedom of speech

I’ve decided to bring a new feature to this site called “Video Of The Week.” I’ll put one up every Friday. I suspect that I’ll be putting up a lot from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. This week’s comes from Conan.

Conan, Meet The Press, comedy, spoof, parody, Bush

A recent report from Time Magazine highlights the amount of power that Joe Lieberman now has due to the speculation surrounding the possibility that he may abandon his party for a party that seems to be more in line with his interests: the Republican Party.

According to the article, Lieberman has said that leaving the party is a “very remote possibility,” but the way recent events have played out seem to suggest that the idea is not far-fetched.

The main issue that distances him from the party is his position on Iraq. So far, Lieberman has been no less than 100% supportive of the Bush administration’s policy, which is a stance that doesn’t seem to have too much support, even from the Republicans.

It was his hawkish stance on Iraq that caused Lieberman to lose the Democratic nomination to Ned Lamont last year during his campaign for re-election in the Senate. Lieberman went on to win the election as an Independent. Upon being re-elected, he came back home to the Democratic Party.

Lieberman has also said that he might vote for a Republican in the next presidential election.

So with this “on the fence” position that he seems to be in, comes power. If he were to make the switch, the Democrats would no longer have a majority in the Senate. The party will do what they can to make sure he does not leave. They will fight hard to keep that majority.

The Democratic Party is on pins and needles to keep him on their side, but pins and needles are not a good foundation for a party that wishes to make drastic changes. The advantage for the Democrats of him switching parties is that they would no longer have to worry about him switching parties. I know that sounds redundant, but the party would no doubt be stronger if it were not catering to the position of one senator whose convictions seem to be way out of the mainstream of his party.

I don’t think he will make the switch. He is much more powerful now being a Democrat who is keeping his party on their toes, than being a Republican and loosing the special treatment that comes with being a man on the verge of switching sides.

And as much as I kind of hate to admit it because I greatly disagree with him on Iraq, it is refreshing to see someone take such a strong position that goes against their party. It’s refreshing that after 18 years of belonging to one party in the Senate, one can still be virtually non-partisan. So despite my profound disagreements with him, I applaud this man for putting his convictions before party association.

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EDIT: Today Lieberman brushed the Time Magazine article off by saying, “…I have no desire or intention to leave the Democratic Party or the Democratic Caucus,” after being asked about it.

Lieberman, Republican, Democrat, Senate, Iraq War, Politics

Someone decides to make Mass interesting for once, and everyone just freaks out.

At a church in New Mexico, Ash Wednesday Mass was disrupted by blaring foul language coming from CD players that were duct-taped to the bottoms of the pews. A bomb squad was sent in to detonate two of these “devices.”

I love when the news reports stories like this and they seem to tag somewhat related, yet completely unnecessary information at the bottom of the page. This one is a great example. After telling us about the bomb squad blowing up CDs that allegedly featured “pornographic messages,” they go on to teach us a mini-lesson about our Catholic brothers.

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The bomb squad blew up two players outside and kept the third one to test for fingerprints or DNA and trace its components, he said.
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, which marks a 40-day period of fasting and penitence before Easter.
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CNN. They report the news and give us a little more. Thanks guys.

religion, catholic, ash wednesday, disturbing the peace

The music industry is now cracking down more than ever on college students who are downloading music “illegally.” Incidentally, college students are likely one of their largest groups of customers. Good going, guys!

In my opinion it all has to do with the sad realization that the record companies are having to fight becoming obsolete because of the changing technology. The record companies are making the money off of the CD sales; only a small amount of it actually goes to the artist. With the convenience and popularity of putting songs up on websites like MySpace and Pure Volume, the record companies probably feel threatened and are now lashing out on the defenseless.

A month ago, this story came out about a 16 year old who fought back against the industry that had sued him, his sister, and his mother for music piracy. The family was essentially being attacked by the music industry.

It seems to me that in stories like this, the industry is unfairly picking on the harmless. In all of these cases where the music industry sues the downloader, I am always quick to defend the downloader, because it always seems like a case of the big guy picking on the little guy.

In one of my earlier posts today I defended Islam by saying that it gets a bad reputation for being a violent religion. This story however, does nothing to help my cause.

A man killed his family (wife and four daughters) in their sleep to “protect” them from westernized lifestyles. He was also upset that his daughter wanted to become a fashion designer.

It happened a few months ago, but this report came out today.

For the longest time I have maintained that Islam is not responsible for events like this. Rather, horrible acts are done for different reasons and masked by religion. But this story and stories like this one make it hard to accept that.

It should also be noted that Islam is a relatively young religion. While Christianity is often regarded as a peaceful religion, it wasn’t always like this. Christianity has had its share of bloodshed. It would be wrong to take the position that Islam fosters violence while being blind to the violence that has been brought in the name of Jesus.

Please feel free to comment. Do you think Islam is a religion that fosters violence, or are radicals like this only making it seem that way?

Yesterday, a federal appeals court in Washington upheld a provision in a law signed by the president (the Military Commissions Act) that took away the rights of Guantanamo prisoners to challenge their detention before a court.

This really doesn’t change anything. In october 2006, the Military Commissions Act was approved by Congress, which denies habeas corpus to any non-citizen who is being detained by the U.S. So essentially we can keep these prisoners for as long as we want, possibly even without reason, and use “aggressive” interrogation methods (as long as we don’t refer to it as torture) until they squeal and give information that may or may not be accurate, seeing how they may be innocent after all.

This may get to the Supreme Court, and I’m willing to bet that the new Democratic congress will change the policy.

I just can’t help but feeling that if only one of those detainees is innocent, then Guantanamo is an atrocity. At least it is for that one person who is being tortured with the goal of making him cough up information he doesn’t have.

With love…

Guantanamo, habeas corpus, Military Commissions Act, detainee, Supreme Court

Muslim Cabbie Charged With Running Over Students After Religious Dispute

This is actually not that interesting of a story. Someone tried to kill his fellow man over religion. It happens. I have a problem with that headline though. The fact that he is Muslim does not really belong in the headline. It’s really not one of the main points of the story. It’s a detail, and don’t get me wrong, it would be poor journalism to not include it in the story at all, but the headline? No, like I said, minor detail.

I wouldn’t say anything about it if I felt that it would have been treated the same way if a Christian had done the same thing. When Andrea Yates drowned her five children the headline was not, “Christian Woman Kills Children,” although her religion definitely played a part in the act. No, it was simply “Crazy Woman Kills Children.”

“Crazy Cabbie Charged With Running Over Students After Religious Dispute.” I like it. It’s got a certain ring to it. “Crazy Cabbie…” Wonderful use of alliteration I must say.

Muslim, cabbie, murder, religion

The U.N. is considering an anti-asteroid plan to deal with a potential (by potential I mean a 1 in 45,000 chance) asteroid collision that could cause the extinction of the human race. April 13, 2036 is the date to pencil in to your calendar. You can read more about that story here.

And in light of the seriousness of this:

asteroid, end of the world, April 13 2036

A recent report from CNN highlights the growing trend of ’sport killing’ homeless people. Last year 122 homeless people were attacked and 20 were murdered.

The report talks about a group of teenage boys who started out drinking and hanging out with a homeless man by the name of Rex Baum. Eventually, playful taunting turned into murder. They punched, threw rocks, pounded him with a baseball bat, smeared feces on his face, and slashed him with a knife.

Afterwards, they bragged about this around town.

I’m usually against harsh punishments, but 15 years of prison does not seem like enough for something like this. That is some disgusting stuff.

I wasn’t even aware of this problem. I don’t understand how you could rationalize something like that. I guess it’s not something that is rationalized in most cases. It seems like one of those things where afterwards the people involved say it ‘just happened.’

And I can’t help but wonder how much time these guys would be serving in prison if the victim had been someone other than a homeless bum. The sad thing is, I’m sure it would have been a much longer sentence.

homeless, murder, sport killing

There’s an interesting story that’s been getting some coverage lately having to do with a minister who is claiming to be God, as well as the anti-christ. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda heads a church that claims members scattered throughout the world. Interestingly, he makes a hefty salary of $136,000, wears Rolexes, and rides BMWs. (Seems that God is living a little more lavishly than he did as Jesus, but hey, times have changed. I’m sure he would have been equally as compelling if he was a rich, well-to-do snob, but I digress.) He also has a tattoo of the number 666 on his arm, which is a move that would no doubt get most ministers fired to say the least.

From CNN:
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Although it’s a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.
The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he’s the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.
“Antichrist is the best person in the world,” he says. “Antichrist means don’t put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross.”
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And in my opinion, the most frightening part of this report:

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So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn’t been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist.
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Yes, and I assume that would be because it is a perfectly rational claim.
As easy as it would be to just label his followers as plain stupid (and believe me, it would be very easy to do that), it should also be recognized that the human race altogether has fallen for some pretty stupid beliefs. This is obviously an example, but it is one of many. As a whole, we are not strangers to the persuasion and faulty rhetoric of larger than life leaders. History is filled with cases of seemingly rational people being swept up in such movements that have ended up in ridicule, embarrassment, and in the worst cases, tragedy. Let’s pray that in this case, it will not get to that last one.

And if you are the praying type, please don’t pray to this guy.

God, Antichrist, de Jesus, cult, religion

Does anyone else see a huge problem with this? Some of the people who these things are targeting are drunk out of their mind, and we’re going to help them by giving them advice from a talking urinal. Imagine going into one of these bathrooms to find a drunk trying to talk back to the magical urinal. You do not help a drunk by giving him a talking inanimate object. Especially a urinal.

Forget about drunks. If I walk into that bathroom completely sober and I hear the urinal talking to me when I start going, that’s it! It’s a good thing I’m at the urinal, because it would scare the piss out of me.

With love,
Steve.

talking urinal, alcohol, New Mexico