The Purple Pinata
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Matters Political and Influential, as in the Purple Pinata strikes yet again.
I've been emailing the story below about Al Franken to those who might be interested, and it has been picked up by a widely read and influential blog, PowerLine Blog, under the headline, "Al Franken Plays Baghdad." Thanks PowerLine for getting this story out!
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Matters Political and Hypocritical, as in Al Franken's antics and activities in Baghad.
Al Franken’s brother, Owen, a ‘68 MIT alum, has written a concise description of Al’s December USO trip to Iraq for the MIT alumni class notes (password protected, but I’m an MIT alum, so I’ve pasted it below). I originally saw this in Technology Review magazine, sent to all MIT alumni. However, the version on MIT's website was slightly richer in detail than the version printed in the magazine.
NOTE:
(1) Al joked about WMDs during his USO show. (Was he criticized by the Left?)
(2) Al yelled F— Y– to soldiers while playing Saddam in a skit. (Couldn’t broadcast this.)
(3) Al lit Hannukah candles in Saddam’s palace and joked about Jews burning the palace if the candles fell over. (If Mel Gibson held a Catholic service in the palace and joked about Christians burning the palace, what howls of outrage would we hear from the Left?)
(4) Did Franken give a prayer of thanks to the troops and Pres. Bush for the privilege of lighting those candles in Iraq?
Other sources on this topic are: a CNN interview, a U. of Pitt. review of a recent Franken appearance, and an extended Mother Jones article by Franken:
MIT 1968 Class Notes for April 2004 (misspellings and all):
?The Holidays aren't over yet, but here goes: I just came back from eight days as the USO photographer on a trip with my brother, Al, in Kuweit, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan. [Owen did not mention it, but we found out elsewhere this was Al?s 4th USO trip.] Al and I seemed to be the only "Liberals" on the trip, and we got along with everyone fantastically including some real redneck country singers and two people from Fox News, the Army's favorite. We did run into a lot of soldiers who asked Al to sign his book, Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them, a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. It was great to be around so many people with a crazy sense of humor, including a very jolly fat guitar player, who when told that in Iraq in the summer it is 140? in the sun, told us that he might go back there then and sell his shade. One highlight of the trip was the lighting of Hannukah candles in one of Saddam's Palaces in Baghdad. We had this funny idea that the candles would fall over and CNN would be reporting that the Palace of Saddam Hussein was burned down by Jews. Other highlights: The Taliban Cheerleaders. Al introduced them, but they could not perform because they could not dance or even listen to music. He convinced them that Afghanistan had been liberated so they did a raunchy routine and stripped off their burkas to reveal that they were in fact the Washington Redskin Cheerleaders, much to the joy of the screaming troops. Al Franken as Saddam Hussein in handcuffs trying to make a deal to tell where the WMD's are if they uncuffed him and gave him a fifteen minute headstart ("That's all I need"). When refused, he broke away from his MP guards and ran to the edge of the stage yelling "f--- y--" at all the soldiers. {A ?G rated? version of this skit was done on Garrison Keillor?s Prairie Home Companion and can be found at http://www.prairiehome.org/play/audio_segment.php?media=/2003/12/27_phc&start=00:01:19:04.0&end=00:01:28:18.0 ] Daryll Worley's moving song, "Have you forgotten?" about 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan. Even I was in tears when he sang it, especially the night he made a private concert for about five of us in Saddam's marble Palace at one am, after the Hannukah lighting. As for the soldiers, they all want to go home, and they individually have different senses of their missions. The soldiers in Afghanistan have a better sense of why they are there than the ones in Iraq, especially those National Guard persons and reservists. In Iraq they are very nervous about their security, as you can imagine, but realize that now there, they have to stay and stick it out and try to secure the place. They are the victims of an administration that only considered the best case scenario. ==================
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Matters Vernal and Annual, as in the swallows have returned!
As if on cue, the swallows have just arrived this morning (sometime between 9:00 and 9:30), the first day of spring, after making their yearly migration from South America. These cliff swallows have already begun building their mud nests on the rough stucco just underneath the overhang on the south facing wall of my apartment building. (This is the third spring that I have witnessed this.) This link provides more information on the habits of swallows.
Mission San Juan Capistrano in Orange County is famous for its celebration of the yearly return of its swallows. The festival is traditionally held on March 19, St. Joseph's Day.
Because its mud nest is reminiscent of the tomb from which Jesus emerged at his resurrection, the swallow has become one of the symbols of Easter.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Matters Criminal and Political, as in the new evidence that a professor faked hate crime vandalism.
Check this link to a story about a visiting professor at one of the Claremont Colleges apparently vandalizing her own vehicle to make it look like a hate crime had been committed. Shockingly, the college took time off in the immediate aftermath of the crime to ponder the event. This will be intersting to follow.
Friday, March 12, 2004
Matters Literal and Historical, as in the capture of Miguel Cervantes by North Africans.
As an interesting piece of anecdotal evidence to support the previous posting concerning the enslavement of Europeans by North Africans, I came across an event in the life of Miguel Cervantes, the author of the great Spanish novel, Don Quixote. Cervantes was returning to Spain after spending four years with the Spanish army participating in military expeditions around the Mediterranean, when, at age 28, in 1575 he, along with those on his ship, the Sol, were seized by Algerian corsairs (pirates) and held captive in Algiers. Because Cervantes was carrying letters of recommendation from the brother of the King of Spain, the Algerians did not put him to work, thinking, erroneously, that he was a person of some status. Cervantes was eventually ransomed out of captivity five years later in 1580.
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Matters Historical and Servile, as in a new book about Europeans enslaved by North Africans.
Here is a brief review of a book which estimates there were at least 1 million Europeans enslaved by North Africans between 1500 and 1800. (The link to the March 11 Washington Times article will only be good for a few days.) The book is Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 by Robert Davis.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Matters Electoral and Local, as in voting problems with electronic voting machines.
Reports have been coming in all morning from southern California that voters in numerous precincts are having difficulty with voting via the new electronic voting machines. KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles, as well as, KFMB 760 AM in San Diego have been reporting this. KFMB reports problems in 40 locations in San Diego County including Fallbrook, and Valley Center here in north San Diego County.
