ILLITERACY IMPRISONMENT

According to the BBC



The United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, has condemned the burning of four girls' schools in a province in central Afghanistan.



In a way, this incident seems emblematic of the etiology of this culture's backwardness. The oppressive forces correctly perceive that literacy is a threat to their power over the population.

SPEAKING OF M.E. MEDIA

According to the British Guardian's Media Section

Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite channel that became famous after September 11 for its Osama bin Laden scoops, is to broadcast in English for the first time as part of an ambitious expansion plan.

Early next year it will begin dubbing news broadcasts into English and providing a separate soundtrack to the main Arabic broadcast.

IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT

An Egyptian TV company is planning to broadcast a series for Ramadan which incorporates The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious fraud written by the Russian Czar's Secret Police. The TV adaption is called "Horseman Without a Horse."
From The Washington File:

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher conducted the department's
daily briefing October 31.

QUESTION: And the second one is that the Secretary, I believe,
recently in the last week, has received letters or a letter from some
prominent Jewish groups urging him and the State Department to
intervene with Egypt over this television series which they are about
to air which is, I guess, a depiction of the "Protocols of the Elders
of Zion." Has the Secretary or anyone from this building been in touch
with the Egyptians about this, which the Jewish groups think -- say is
anti-Semitic?

MR. BOUCHER: It is -- we have received information on this. It is a
series, I think, on some -- supposedly on other topics but that
incorporates or is based on these odious "Protocols of the Elders of
Zion." We have raised it with other governments, but let me see if I
can you any more detail on that.

According to later reports Ambassador C. David Welch has raised concerns about the series with Safwat el-Sherif, minister of information in Egypt.

BRAINWASHING CHILDREN TO BECOME MURDERERS

I didn't want to seem harsh in writing to the MSNBC fellow, but the gravity of this issue seemed to require a jarring wake-up analogy, rather than a rant on the abstract issue. The article mentioned at the Southern Poverty Law Center site is actually worth reading
As to LGF, today it has another article and link destined to cause upset and maybe outrage.

Hamas has launched a new Internet comic strip for children which LGF has linked from the IDF website

MORE ON LGF AT MSNBC's BESTBLOG

The MSNBC Weblog Editor posted a follow-up question, and I responded.

Is it possible to ask if a blog is hateful (or biased or anything else) without simultaneously accusing it of such?

On the website for The Southern Poverty Law Center (www.splcenter.org) there is the Intelligence Report for Spring 2002 called 'The Swastika and the Crescent.'

Is it possible that the presence of this material makes The SPL Center too hateful to be included in a list of quality web sites of the week?

If you publicly even raise this question, you deserve to be fired for incompetency.

LITTLE GREEN CONTROVERSY
Just for the record, I sent the following e-mail letter to MSNBC yesterday:

LGF monitors the manifestos, communiques, and activities of the Islamic Fascist movement and its various subsidiaries which I often compare to the old mafia's crime families.

The First Amendment rights of LGF and the Southern Poverty Law Center along with other organizations of this ilk are guaranteed protection in our system, and should not be piddled away to appease mob vetoes-- especially mobs wearing hoods.

To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing whatsoever controversial about this.

May I suggest that it is in MSNBC's best long-term interests to affirm these rights afforded by our system.

Thank you for your attention.

REFLECTIONS IN A FUNHOUSE MIRROR
Lotsa controversy swirling around Charles Johnson's weblog/forum Little Green Footballs. LGF is a collection of Moslem material translated into English from various sources which is bound to be a lightening rod for reactions.

MAINSTREAMING...?
Doonesbury has introduced a character who is blogging. Does this mean that the blog has entered into the mainstream of American culture. And, if so, what are the implications of that? Doonesbury

THE SPOKESTERS

It looks like the Dell Dude may have some company. Another youngster has been chosen as a computer spokesperson by the name of Ellen Feiss. And she seems well on her way to becoming a quirky celebrity,too. As I recall, it was actually IBM who started all this with a guy working in his pajamas. Sound familiar?

The Ellen Phenom

The Emir of Qatar opened a conference in Doha on 'US relations with the Islamic World' at the Hotel Ritz Carlton. We will try to keep tabs on this.

from The Peninsula On-line

It's a small world and getting smaller every day.